湯瑪斯‧庫伯‧高奇（Thomas Cooper Gotch, 1854-1931）是英國十九世紀維多利亞晚期的畫家。高奇原深受巴比松畫派（Barbizon School）的影響，所以多採暗褐、灰黑等抑鬱色調和粗略的方刷筆觸來描繪紐林地區的風俗民情。然而，高奇在1891年的義大利之旅後，卻改以女子或孩童為描繪對象，並運用華麗色彩、豐富裝飾呈現富含象徵性意味的畫面。

1903年【信息】，即是湯瑪斯‧高奇於1891年後轉變畫風的代表作。畫中身穿寶藍色服飾的帶翼天使，左手輕放在女子的左肩上，右手則指向畫面左側，彷彿有著重要消息正試圖告知女子。而天使前方的女子則側身回頭，似乎正聆聽著天使的話語。畫中由女子、天使翅膀與身軀所形成的構圖，使得畫面顯得單純且穩重。散落在畫中各處且與人等高的枝葉、花苞與罌粟花，則將畫中主角包覆其中，使觀者聚焦在女子與天使的互動上。畫中婉轉、流暢的線條顯示畫家技法的嫻熟度。而以灰白色調為主的背景，使得作品呈現出有如霧氣朦朧般的效果，但也讓天使金、藍交錯的翅膀、飾有金色條紋的寶藍色服飾和鮮豔的罌粟花躍然於畫布之上。

畫中的女子為高奇的女兒──菲莉絲‧高奇（Phyllis Gotch），是高奇自1883年起最喜歡描繪的模特兒之一。由於此作描述天使前來告訴女子訊息的時刻，所以常被視為《聖經》中的「受胎告知」題材。但因為女子與天使的互動方式與穿插於罌粟花叢的元素，與「受胎告知」的圖像傳統仍有差異，所以又被視為是富含高奇個人想像之作。 (徐鈺涵)

Thomas Cooper Gotch (1854-1931) was a British painter of the late Victorian Era in the 19th century. Influenced by the Barbizon School, Gotch depicted mostly scenes of Newlyn, a town in Cornwall, England, and utilized mainly dark brown, greyish black and bold lines for his paintings. However, after his travels to Italy in 1891, his interests in the subject matter switched and began to portray women and children, using exuberant colors and decorative scenes to produce paintings with allegorical meanings.

The Message represents this change in style. In the painting, the winged angel in azure clothes points his right hand to the left of the painting, as if to announce some important message to the woman. The woman looks over her shoulder to listen to the angel. The work is composed of the woman’s torso, and the angel’s wings and body, giving a simple and stable effect to the picture. Scattered around are leaves, branches, and poppy buds surrounding the main figures so as to draw viewers’ attention to the interaction between the woman and the angel. The flowing line indicates the technical maturity of the painter. The background in grey creates a misty and hazy effect, against which the gold-and-blue wings, the azure clothes with golden stripes and the colorful poppies enliven the canvas.

The woman in the picture is Phyllis, Gotch’s daughter and one of his favorite models beginning in 1883. As the painting depicts the moment an angel comes to announce the good news to the woman, it is often classified under the biblical story of Annunciation. However, because elements such as the interaction between the angel and the woman and the illustration of the poppy field differ greatly from the traditional iconic imagery, the painting is also thought to be a work utterly of Gotch’s own imagination. (Yu Han HSU)